i won’t bother you after every spanish class, promised, but alvaro’s games today made me laugh too much not to drop you note. which i must start by saying that, when marÃa comes to pick me up after class and we try to find a dining hall on Science Hill, as this particular concentration of science buildings in the forest is called, we find out that there is not much except a van that stops by every day at noon, selling tacos, burritos, french fries, softdrinks… to a long line of hungry students (many of whom live on this campus) and staff. all of a sudden alvaro’s previous game of criticizing food habits here seems a bit less funny. (and frankly, who conceives a campus like this, without enough adequate dining facilities or food stores?) it already got a bit less funny earlier in class today when we had to tell each other what we ate this morning, and the seriously overweight girl sitting next to me said “pizza”.
but i wanted to tell you about today’s game. alvaro made us listen to Corazón loco in the Bebo and Cigala version to review the verb poder (No te puedo comprender, corazón loco). a pleasant although a bit random way to learn verbs, i remember thinking. but alvaro clearly had a greater plan. when we moved on to conversation, he asks: so what do you think, is it possible to love two women, yes or no. or two men or a woman and a man, that’s not the point. 10 minutes of discussion in small groups. the class is hit by bafflement and confusion. “He wants us to talk about whà t?!?” the kids look at each other; some mouths fall open, some heads shake in disbelief. sitting in the back of the room, i overlook the wave of slight panic rolling over the class, and catch the gaze of alvaro sitting at his desk, supposedly correcting some papers but hardly disguising how much he enjoys the whole scene. the sense of moral panic doesn’t last very long. at least in my small group the young women find themselves on the same page and express it with fervor. “¡No es possible!” and everybody switches to english quite fast this time in order to make their point. i stay quiet, enjoy the spectacle of alvaro and the class. then the young women turn to me. what can i say, claro que sÃ... and i’m looking forward to the other games alvaro still plans to play with these american undergrads.